Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Gathering Content for your Website

When you don’t have any content, and your client wants to begin, where do you begin?


After you’ve completed your wireframes and have moved on to developing your comp in Photoshop, you can begin to gather content, even if it’s not finalized or you have none.

Copy

There are a few ways to procure copy. You can:
  1. Use existing/old copy.
  2. Write something quickly that will be similar to the final draft; this should include headlines, sub-heads, etc.
  3. Use "dummy" copy, which is usually your best, fastest, and most efficient option.

Resources for dummy copy generators:

Lorem Ipsum Generator
Blind Text Generator
Loremify


Images

Similar to obtaining copy, there are many options for finding FPO (For Placement/Position Only) imagery:
  1. Use existing/old images.
  2. Depending on the content, you can take photos, but this might not be the most efficient, time effective option.
  3. Stock photos are most likely your best bet. Many stock photo companies allow you do download a low-res image without the watermark simply by creating an account. This option will best reflect the final imagery that will be used.
  4. Or, even better you can use Google, Flickr, etc!

When using FPO content, the designer should somehow indicate such by either notating it somewhere on the page, or what’s typically done is placing a big fat FPO over the content.





Additionally, you can use shapes and other place holder content to represent the content that will be featured on the final designs.

When you begin to develop the final content to be used on the website, there are a few things to keep in mind related to developing good content that will engage the user.


According to Nicholas Tart, the “3 Things that Visitors Should See on Every Page of Your Blog” (or website) should be:
  1. A First-Thing-They-See Headline
  2. A Valuable, Persuasive, and Trust-Building Message
  3. A Call to Action that Accomplishes Your Goals
Getting into more detail, starting with headlines, Tart uses the analogy that if you’re lost somewhere, when you look at the provided onsite map, be it at a mall, museum, public transpiration, etc. the first thing you see is a big red circle and an arrow saying, “YOU ARE HERE.”





Tart compares the headlines on websites as your “YOU ARE HERE” circle and advises to make them “big, bold, and colorful.”

Next, you need to effectively communicate the message you’re advocating. Within each page of your site, it’s “an opportunity to give something while building trust” with your users and this message is translated to the user via text, image, audio and video.

Your text needs to be written extraordinarily well in order to stand out among your competitors. Your images need to be curated in such a way that they grab the users attention; creating infographics and other icons can help you stand out. Audio and video are optional, but it is the most effective way in building trust with your users.

And finally, your Call to Action (CTA) is typically at the end of your advocated message, but can be in multiple places within your site. However, before you do all of the above, you need to decide exactly what that message is - what are you advocating?


Questions to ask yourself when deciphering how to accomplish your goals through a call to action. Is your goal to:
  • Keep someone on your site? List your related posts. The popular posts in the sidebar also help keep people on your site.
  • Get someone to comment or interact? Ask them a question and make sure that they know that their response is meaningful.
  • Get someone to click an ad? Put your ads there and make sure that they’re relevant to the content.
  • Get someone to opt-in? Place an opt-in box and tell them why they should subscribe.
  • Get someone to buy a product? Put a link to your sales page or someone else’s sales page and make a final recommendation on why they should purchase.
  • Get someone to take your advice? Tell them exactly what to do and emphasize the importance of taking action immediately.
  • Get someone to trust you? Add an author bio with a mix of personal and professional details.


Ultimately, one action or goal listed above translates into another action and then begins to build trust in the user. This can be translated into a series of actions that look like this:

The user browses your site and has a positive experience; maybe they comment on something or engage in some way; you respond in a timely manner confirming the initial trust and positive experience the user had; this then turns into the user returning to your site and making it part of their browsing routine which can then translate into buying a product and/or advocating and recommending you, your brand and what you stand for to others. All of this helps build your brand and allows it to be more accessible which is the primary goal.

You don’t want content that will distract the user from the website's indented goals. All of your content should work together to fulfill the objectives of your site. If it doesn’t, why is the user there?



References:
http://www.incomediary.com/visitors-see-every-page-blog




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